For more than a decade, that has been a common and constant refrain. While working at washingtonpost.com, the Guardian US, and now, the Newspaper Association of America, I have been asked frequently about the state of the industry as people search for the worst.

Though newspaper media is enjoying the largest audiences ever as well as continuing to play a unique and critical role in our communities, there is one fact that always tends to be obscured or outright ignored — newspapers are still making money and newspapers remain a good investment.

A year ago at this time, John Henry and Jeff Bezos made high-profile acquisitions of The Boston Globe and The Washington Post, respectively, which confirmed that newspapers are viable investment options with the ability to grow. Earlier this month, The Washington Post announced record web traffic for July as well as hiring more than 60 people in the first seven months of the year.

A company hiring 60 people in seven months sounds like a healthy one to me.

This summer, the newspaper industry has seen a wave of spin-offs, with Tribune and Gannett both forming publishing-only companies. E.W. Scripps and Journal Communications spun their combined publications off into a new company, Journal Media Group. This is an exciting time for the newspaper industry as these companies will now devote their undivided attention to their publications.

However, as with the investments last year, these spin-offs have been spun into more gloom and doom for the industry. It is simply not accurate.

In fact, buried in the depths of one particular article that signaled the death of newspapers is this gem of a sentence: “Newspapers continue to generate cash and solid earnings.” Think about that for a moment — an industry that generates cash and solid earnings is on its death bed? I refuse to accept that.

What is true is our industry’s business model has changed dramatically in the past half-dozen years. In 2007, 80 percent of newspaper media revenue was generated from advertising. In 2013, less than half of total revenue (46 percent) was from advertising in the daily and Sunday print newspaper. Revenue from readers paying for print and digital news and information accounted for nearly three out of 10 revenue dollar, up from less than two in 10 in 2007. Income from new, non-traditional sources is now rising rapidly.

What is also true is that the public’s thirst for news keeps rising.

Data from the digital measurement firm comScore show that 161 million people visited newspaper websites in the month of March. We are witnessing audience increases across the country, from the aforementioned Washington Post to The Times-Picayune, which announced 5.6 million unique visitors to NOLA.com this July.

There is more demand than ever for news and journalism. There are also more competitors. There was no BuzzFeed or Facebook or Huffington Post 15 years ago. New digital channels offer consumers a dazzling array of options, all of which compete for time and attention. And advertisers face challenges in trying to catch up to these fragmenting audiences.

In my three years as CEO of NAA, I have witnessed an amazing transformation. Newspaper companies look drastically different in 2014 compared to 2011. There has been an increased focused on digital properties. Newspaper reporters and columnists have taken advantage of Twitter to build brands and large readerships. Innovation on the design side has led to beautiful works of long-form journalism include “The Unforgotten” by the Boston Globe and “Breaking Ball” from The Wall Street Journal that ran in July. Newspaper companies are using the power of their brands to create new, non-traditional streams of revenues from event hosting to digital marketing.

The evolution of the newspaper industry continues every day. The explosion of mobile readership thanks to smartphones and tablets have caused newspapers to create new mobile strategies. There is increasing demand from readers for more targeted content, which has given rise to niche sites and blogs developed by newspapers devoted to special areas of interest, such as food, high school sports and fashion.

For me and many in the newspaper industry, it is a fascinating and exhilarating time. We are in the midst a dramatic, historic shift for an industry that has been around as long as the United States of America.

The world has changed and newspapers have changed. The notion of what a newspaper company is should change for the general public. It is no longer simply about print. It is about all platforms. People don’t think, “I’m reading the newspaper” when scrolling through nytimes.com but they should.

Despite all the changes, one thing remains the same — newspapers still make money.

Caroline H. Little is president and CEO of the Newspaper Association of America, the industry’s largest trade organization.

By Nick LarigakisGuest columnist
In the past two months, we have witnessed unprecedented engagement on the Cyprus issue by the Obama Administration, namely, Vice President Joe Biden. I have never seen anything like it in my 27 years of advocating for Cyprus with the American Hellenic Institute. The vice president’s visit to Cyprus was historic. It was the first time in 52 years a sitting vice president visited there.

Folks who follow the Cyprus issue know Biden is no stranger to Cyprus. He is probably the most well-educated and well-versed public official on the nuances of the Cyprus issue. For this result, credit must be given to the Greek American community’s grassroots.

Without Biden’s strong support through the many years as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee (along with Sen. Paul Sarbanes) who knows where this issue would be today. Furthermore, we certainly would not have been as successful in having Congress impose an arms embargo on Turkey immediately following Turkey’s invasion were it not for his assistance at the time.

This year, Cyprus received high-level visits from U.S. Department of State Assistant Secretary Victoria Nuland in February; and just two weeks ago, on the heels of the vice president’s visit, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Amanda Sloat and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy James Townsend.

What does all this mean?

The only plausible explanation is that Cyprus now has the potential to be a major energy supplier for Europe and beyond. This is a game changer. However, as long as the Cyprus issue remains
unresolved, it will compromise how this energy will be fully developed, and more importantly, how it will be exported. Biden underscored this point when he spoke at the 2014 Clergy Laity Congress in Philadelphia. He said: “The exciting discoveries of natural gas and oil offshore in Cyprus and Israel, as well as potential discoveries in Greece and Lebanon, have an opportunity to position the region as a global energy hub, and we have no bones about it from the very beginning. And under international law, Cyprus owns access to these valuable fields within the region.”

But exporting it out of the region is important. The United States and others would prefer that it be piped through Turkey. This will never happen because it would have to go through Cyprus’s Economic Exclusive Zone (EEZ) and without a settlement, it’s a non-starter. Therefore, energy has been the number one catalyst for increased U.S. engagement, making Cyprus a strategic partner of the U.S.

In Philadelphia, Biden added: “…Cyprus … has become a genuine, strategic partner. That’s what’s basically changed; it’s become a genuinely strategic partner of the USA.”

For the United States to benefit fully from this strategic relationship Cyprus needs to be free and united. A settlement must be reached that is just and viable, incorporating the norms of democratic principles. The United States can go a long way to make it happen. The vice president has started.
In Cyprus, he stated: “The matter of the fact is that the Government of Turkey, in my view, is coming to understand, not for any noble reasons, but for practical reasons, that the status quo on the island does not benefit them economically, militarily and politically. And there is significant potential benefit for Turkey in a bizonal, bicommunal federation.”

Biden’s remarks at the Clergy-Laity Congress demonstrated his further, active engagement on the issues. There, he stated he raised the issues in conversations with Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan. There, he also stated publicly that Turkish troops should be removed from Cyprus. “I opened up and made clear the U.S. position that although it was a Cypriot negotiation, there was and is and can only be one government, one Cypriot, Greek Cypriot government, on the island, with no Turkish troops on the island,” he said.

In the past, Turkey has manipulated the negotiations through the Turkish Cypriot leader. Turkey’s interests on Cyprus are not the same of the people of Cyprus. Unfortunately, not much progress has been made as evidenced by the lack of movement on confidence-building measures. This is reality. Biden and the State Department would be wise to understand it. While it’s extremely important for negotiations to proceed, they cannot succeed if the Turkish Cypriots will continue to take their instructions from Ankara and the political will is absent.

Therefore, the United States government must continue to put open pressure on Turkey. As a community, we must do our part to remind policy makers of Vice President’s Biden’s encouraging remarks. Because as historic and important as the recent flurry of comments and visits have been, we need to be vigilant and adopt President Reagan’s slogan, “Trust, but verify!”

Nick Larigakis is president of the American Hellenic Institute, a non-profit Greek American think tank and public policy center that works to strengthen relations between the United States and Greece and Cyprus, and within the Greek American community.

READING, PA – National
and state leaders of the National Federation of Independent Business
(NFIB), which represents 15,000 small businesses in Pennsylvania, joined
Ryan Costello at a small business in Reading, PA, today to announce the
organization’s endorsement of his campaign for Congress in
Pennsylvania's 6th District. The announcement was made at
Goodman Vending Services, a small family business located in Reading
that employs 75 people.

"NFIB
is a leading voice on behalf of the nation's small businesses, which
are one of the major drivers of our economic and job growth," said Ryan
Costello, who currently serves as Chairman of the Chester County Board
of Commissioners. "I am honored to have the support of an organization
that advocates for and champions small business. If elected, I will work
to implement policies that promote job creation, reduce barriers to
economic growth, and cut bureaucratic red tape that saps the resources
of small businesses and inhibit their ability to expand and hire new
workers."

"When
he was a Chester County Commissioner Ryan balanced budgets, cut
government spending, and reduced the size of county governmentall
while making investments in open space," said NFIB Executive State
Director Kevin Shivers. "It's policies like that which make small
businesses feel more confident about expanding and hiring. Government
must live within its means and keeps tax rates low. We need that same
mindset in Washington, D.C. where an out of control federal budget
deficit has small businesses nervous about their economic future and
potential for growth. That's why we support Ryan Costello for
Congress."

In
Chester County, Costello is co-chairing a public-private partnership,
VISTA 2025, an effort to develop a strategy that will guide economic
development efforts for Chester County for the next 10 years while
balancing progress and preservation. Costello is working closely with
the Chester County Economic Development Council and other community and
business leaders on the comprehensive strategy, which is designed to
position the county for future growth. The effort underscores
Costello’s commitment to retaining and attracting businesses, which will
in turn support job growth in the county.

The
endorsement of Costello was made by NFIB's SAFE (Save America’s Free
Enterprise) Trust, the association’s political action committee. NFIB
is the nation's leading small business association, with offices in
Washington, D.C. and all 50 state capitals. Founded in 1943 as a
nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, NFIB gives small and independent
business owners a voice in shaping the public policy issues that affect
their business. NFIB's powerful network of grassroots activists sends
their views directly to state and federal lawmakers through our unique
member-only ballot, thus playing a critical role in supporting America’s
free enterprise system.

Family
owned and a recipient of national awards, Goodman Vending and Food
Service provides vending, coffee and food service. Founded in 1946, it
has grown to be one of the region's largest independent vending
companies, serving Berks, Dauphin, Lancaster, Lehigh, Lebanon and
Schuylkill counties and surrounding areas.

It could be labeled a Jedi mind trick, or perhaps double speak worthy of a George Orwell novel. President Obama and the Left have raised to an art form the ability to name a policy initiative the exact opposite of what it actually is, thus making opponents look bad for opposing it.

The “Affordable” Health Care Act which has resulted in higher health care costs; and the proposed “DREAM” Act that supposedly would solve the nation’s immigration crisis, but actually would simply grant amnesty to lawbreakers are but two examples. In recent weeks the president and his minions have been touting “economic patriotism.”

Setting aside the obvious irony of the Obama Administration posing as patriotic, it is safe to assume most Americans would not want to be viewed as unpatriotic. On the face of it “economic patriotism” would sound like the latest version of a “buy American” campaign, or a push to patronize your local small business. In actuality it is part of the administration’s effort to demonize corporations for trying to lower their tax burden and maximize profits.

Taken a step further, as individuals we would be viewed as economically unpatriotic if we took our home mortgage deduction, child tax credit or charitable giving deduction because we are depriving the federal treasury of the funds it needs to finance the President’s big government agenda. So, stop waving that flag and start finding ways to maximize the amount of money you fork over to the IRS every April.

What has set the president’s patriotic heart aflutter is the growing trend of large U.S.-based corporations merging with partners overseas and locating their corporate headquarters in nations with more favorable corporate tax rates, a practice known as corporate inversion. This is totally legal and what would be expected in a free market system. But the president has determined that legal or not, it is - in his opinion - wrong. And, he having a pen and a phone is the final arbiter of all things legal and moral.

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew got the debate started by asking congress to outlaw corporate inversion. In highly inflammatory language he proclaimed corporations “seek to shift their profits overseas to avoid paying their share of taxes while benefiting from the United States without paying a dime.”

That, of course, is absurd. Both foreign and domestic corporations are subject to the U.S. corporate income tax. The problem is the United States sports a 35% corporate tax rate, the highest rate among the world’s 34 most industrialized nations. And this gets to the heart of the matter. Scott Eastman of the Tax Foundation explains: “The U.S. is one of only six developed nations with a ‘worldwide’ tax system that subjects its domestic corporations to double taxation. Income earned by American corporations abroad is taxed once by the nation in which it was earned, and again when the income is back within our borders.”

It is both the structure of American tax policy and the excessively high tax rate that makes it attractive for corporations to headquarter elsewhere. Consider that Japan is in the process of lowering its corporate tax rate to 25%. Thus, an American corporation that executes an inversion with a Japanese partner will immediately realize a 10% decrease in its tax obligation simply by virtue of that move alone.

Rather than demonizing American companies that are simply reacting to the nation’s oppressive corporate tax policies the Obama Administration should be working with congress on reforming the system. Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have been pushing for such comprehensive reform, but as with virtually all GOP initiatives it has been met with a stone wall of opposition from the White House.

In the meantime, recovery from the Great Recession continues to lag as it will until and unless the underlying disincentives for business investment and growth contained within U.S. tax policy are changed. And no amount of name calling by the president and the treasury secretary will change that fact.

Lowman S. Henry is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research Inc., a non-profit educational foundation based in Harrisburg, PA, and host of the weekly Lincoln Radio Journal. His e-mail address is lhenry@lincolninstitute.org

After 5 full years of Obama policies, nearly 8 in 10 Americans are not satisfied with the way things are going in this country, according to a new Gallup survey. The other two people probably work for the Obama Administration.

In the past two months, we have witnessed unprecedented
engagement on the Cyprus issue by the Obama Administration, namely, Vice
President Joe Biden. I have never seen anything like it in my 27 years of
advocating for Cyprus with the American Hellenic Institute. The vice
president’s visit to Cyprus was historic. It was the first time in 52 years a
sitting vice president visited there. He also hosted two off-the-record
meetings at the White House with leaders of the Greek American community. One
was a pre-trip briefing and the second a post-trip debriefing. I had the
privilege to attend them.

Folks who follow the Cyprus issue know Biden is no stranger
to Cyprus. He is probably the most well-educated and well-versed public
official on the nuances of the Cyprus issue. For this result, credit must be
given to the Greek American community’s grassroots. For example, it was the
then American Hellenic Institute Public Affairs Chairman Dr. Dean C. Lomis,
along with members of AHI-Delaware back in 1974, who met with Biden to educate
him about the conflict and who have been keeping him informed ever since.

Without Biden’s strong support through the many years as
chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee (along with Senator Paul
Sarbanes) who knows where this issue would be today. Furthermore, we certainly
would not have been as successful in having Congress impose an arms embargo on
Turkey immediately following Turkey’s invasion were it not for his assistance
at the time.

This year, Cyprus received high-level visits from U.S.
Department of State Assistant Secretary Victoria Nuland in February; and just
two weeks ago, on the heels of the vice president’s visit, Deputy Assistant
Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Amanda Sloat and Deputy
Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy James Townsend.

What does all this mean?

The only plausible explanation is that Cyprus now has the
potential to be a major energy supplier for Europe and beyond. This is a game
changer. However, as long as the Cyprus issue remains unresolved, it will
compromise how this energy will be fully developed, and more importantly, how
it will be exported. Biden underscored this point when he spoke at the 2014
Clergy Laity Congress in Philadelphia. He said: “The exciting discoveries of
natural gas and oil offshore in Cyprus and Israel, as well as potential
discoveries in Greece and Lebanon, have an opportunity to position the region
as a global energy hub, and we have no bones about it from the very beginning.
And under international law, Cyprus owns access to these valuable fields within
the region.”

But exporting it out of the region is important. The United
States and others would prefer that it be piped through Turkey. This will never
happen because it would have to go through Cyprus’s Economic Exclusive Zone
(EEZ) and without a settlement, it’s a non-starter. Therefore, energy has been
the number one catalyst for increased U.S. engagement, making Cyprus a
strategic partner of the U.S.

In Philadelphia, Biden added: “…Cyprus…has become a genuine,
strategic partner. That’s what’s basically changed; it’s become a genuinely
strategic partner of the USA.” There are other areas that are also defined as
strategic, and Biden continued, “On the issue of counter-terrorism, Cyprus is
an essential link to our war on terrorism. Essential Partner! That is no
hyperbole; that is absolutely true. Counter-terrorism is an area of strategic
partnership, and preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction,
including the removal of serious chemical weapons and the prevention of
re-acquiring the nuclear weapons, little Cyprus has taken on an outsized role
in our pure national interest in our strategic relationship. But it’s not just
a strategic partnership; it’s a growing strategic partnership.”

For the United States to benefit fully from this strategic
relationship Cyprus needs to be free and united. A settlement must be reached
that is just and viable, incorporating the norms of democratic principles. The
United States can go a long way to make it happen. The vice president has
started.

In Cyprus, he stated: “The matter of the fact is that the
Government of Turkey, in my view, is coming to understand, not for any noble
reasons, but for practical reasons, that the status quo on the island does not
benefit them economically, militarily and politically. And there is significant
potential benefit for Turkey in a bizonal, bicommunal federation.”

Biden’s remarks at the Clergy-Laity Congress demonstrated
his further, active engagement on the issues. There, he stated he raised the
issues in conversations with Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan. There, he also
stated publically that Turkish troops should be removed from Cyprus. “I opened
up and made clear the U.S. position that although it was a Cypriot negotiation,
there was and is and can only be one government, one Cypriot, Greek Cypriot
government, on the island, with no Turkish troops on the island,” he said.

As extremely important as these comments are, it would be
helpful to see additional signs that the vice president’s statements are the
administration’s policy. Signs Turkey will cease its intransigence on these
issues and play a constructive role would also be welcomed. Turkey has not
shown it’s willingness to do this. In the past, Turkey has manipulated the
negotiations through the Turkish Cypriot leader. Turkey’s interests on Cyprus
are not the same of the people of Cyprus. Unfortunately, not much progress has
been made as evidenced by the lack of movement on confidence-building measures.
This is reality. Biden and the State Department would be wise to understand it.
While it’s extremely important for negotiations to proceed, they cannot succeed
if the Turkish Cypriots will continue to take their instructions from Ankara
and the political will is absent.

Therefore, the United States government must continue to put
open pressure on Turkey. As a community, we must do our part to remind
policymakers of Vice President’s Biden’s encouraging remarks. Because as
historic and important as the recent flurry of comments and visits have been,
we need to be vigilant and adopt President Reagan’s slogan, “Trust, but
verify!”

Nick Larigakis is president of the American Hellenic
Institute, a non-profit Greek American think tank and public policy center that
works to strengthen relations between the United States and Greece and Cyprus,
and within the Greek American community.

James Pethokoukis of the American Enterprise Institute on the continuing economic malaise following six years of disastrous policies under Barack Obama:

Americans have lost a lot of confidence and replaced it with fear and concern that if something goes wrong things will get even worse. People no longer have that feeling that if they fall down they can pick themselves back up. And I think that's expressed in
the expectation variables. The economy needs to put in stronger numbers for people to feel that they are on more solid ground. And it's fair to say that the politician simply don't get it and don't accept the blame for their contribution to this difficult situation. I was not very optimistic about what the Michigan index would do this week. But the survey managed to come in bellow my expectations. It's a very depressing report.

His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Batholomew, leader of the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians, condemns the persecution of Christians in Iraq and Syria: "We will not remain indifferent or silent before such irrational persecution, cultural intolerance and appalling loss of life, especially when it is caused by religious hatred and racial hostility. The targeting of tens of thousands of Christians (including Arameans, Chaldeans, and Assyrians) and other religious minorities (including Turkmens, Yazidis, and Kurds) can never be justified in the name of any religious creed or conviction."

Millionaire Democrat Tom Wolf is a one-trick pony whose entire campaign for Pennsylvania governor is targeted to unionized teachers. The real culprit with education spending in Pennsylvania is a pension crisis that only one candidate, Gov. Tom Corbett, is trying to address.Wolf has even said there is no pension crisis, which shows he's not serious about solving problems.Pennsylvania's public school staffing at 10-year low

It could be labeled a Jedi mind trick, or perhaps double speak worthy of a George Orwell novel. President Obama and the Left have raised to an art form the ability to name a policy initiative the exact opposite of what it actually is, thus making opponents look bad for opposing it.

The "Affordable" Health Care Act which has resulted in higher health care costs; and the proposed "DREAM" Act that supposedly would solve the nation's immigration crisis, but actually would simply grant amnesty to lawbreakers are but two examples. In recent weeks the president and his minions have been touting "economic patriotism."

Setting aside the obvious irony of the Obama Administration posing as patriotic, it is safe to assume most Americans would not want to be viewed as unpatriotic. On the face of it "economic patriotism" would sound like the latest version of a "buy American" campaign, or a push to patronize your local small business. In actuality it is part of the administration's effort to demonize corporations for trying to lower their tax burden and maximize profits.

Taken a step further, as individuals we would be viewed as economically unpatriotic if we took our home mortgage deduction, child tax credit or charitable giving deduction because we are depriving the federal treasury of the funds it needs to finance the President's big government agenda. So, stop waving that flag and start finding ways to maximize the amount of money you fork over to the IRS every April.

What has set the president's patriotic heart aflutter is the growing trend of large U.S.-based corporations merging with partners overseas and locating their corporate headquarters in nations with more favorable corporate tax rates, a practice known as corporate inversion. This is totally legal and what would be expected in a free market system. But the president has determined that legal or not, it is - in his opinion - wrong. And, he having a pen and a phone is the final arbiter of all things legal and moral.

Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew got the debate started by asking congress to outlaw corporate inversion. In highly inflammatory language he proclaimed corporations "seek to shift their profits overseas to avoid paying their share of taxes while benefiting from the United States without paying a dime."

That, of course, is absurd. Both foreign and domestic corporations are subject to the U.S. corporate income tax. The problem is the United States sports a 35% corporate tax rate, the highest rate among the world's 34 most industrialized nations. And this gets to the heart of the matter. Scott Eastman of the Tax Foundation explains: "The U.S. is one of only six developed nations with a 'worldwide' tax system that subjects its domestic corporations to double taxation. Income earned by American corporations abroad is taxed once by the nation in which it was earned, and again when the income is back within our borders."

It is both the structure of American tax policy and the excessively high tax rate that makes it attractive for corporations to headquarter elsewhere. Consider that Japan is in the process of lowering its corporate tax rate to 25%. Thus, an American corporation that executes an inversion with a Japanese partner will immediately realize a 10% decrease in its tax obligation simply by virtue of that move alone.

Rather than demonizing American companies that are simply reacting to the nation's oppressive corporate tax policies the Obama Administration should be working with congress on reforming the system. Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives have been pushing for such comprehensive reform, but as with virtually all GOP initiatives it has been met with a stone wall of opposition from the White House.

In the meantime, recovery from the Great Recession continues to lag as it will until and unless the underlying disincentives for business investment and growth contained within U.S. tax policy are changed. And no amount of name calling by the president and the treasury secretary will change that fact.

Lowman S. Henry is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
of the Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research Inc., a
non-profit educational foundation based in Harrisburg, PA, and host of the weekly Lincoln Radio Journal. His e-mail address is lhenry@lincolninstitute.org.

Saturday, August 09, 2014

At a Saturday morning press conference, Obama said he wanted to keep 10,000 troops in Iraq but the Iraqi government said no. But in this debate with Mitt Romney from 2012, Obama said he didn't want to keep any US troops in Iraq. Was he lying then or is he lying now? Is Obama capable of telling the truth? (At least he didn't blame George W. Bush this time.)

The
law was sold to Americans as a plan to save money on health insurance.
However, the way it works out is that some save, while others pay a
whole lot more. Plans on the new federal exchanges
are generally more expensive than equivalent coverage available before
the law.

A
detailed county-by-county analysis by researchers at the Manhattan
Institute found that individual market premiums have increased by an
average of 49 percent across the country from 2013
to 2014.

Right
now, health insurers are setting their rates for the next year. So far,
there is little information about the premium costs in most states for
2015. Florida is the first state to provide
information about what consumers will be paying.

According
to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, premiums for plans on
the Obamacare exchanges will increase by an average of 13.2 percent. The
most popular plan in the state, Florida
Blue, plans to raise their rates by 17.6 percent. Big government
subsidies will help some, but not all, consumers afford these increases.

Over
the coming months, other states will announce rate changes, including
Pennsylvania. Many families are going to be shocked to find how much
more money in their budget will be going to health
care next year.

Recently,
we got another shock when the Government Accountability Office issued
their report on the total mess that is Healthcare.gov. Everyone knows
that Healthcare.gov was a disaster at its
launch, but even though the consumer side of the website works
relatively well now, behind the scenes parts of the site still aren’t
built.

Government
information technology programs are frequently disasters. In recent
years, agencies from the IRS to Social Security to the Department of
Defense have spent billions of dollars on
computer systems that never worked properly.

Healthcare.gov
is just another disaster to add to the list. According to the GAO,
government managers were primarily at fault. Work on the website started
without essential information like
how many states would participate or how many enrollees would need to
be served. Compounding this error, the contracts for the site were
constructed in a way that the government paid regardless of whether the
system worked.

In
September 2011, Healthcare.gov was expected to cost $56 million. By
2014, the bill had ballooned to $209 million. The cost for the data hub
had increased over time from $30 million to $85
million.

Last
year, in the midst of the disaster, the government tried to blame
contractors and fired the principle company building Healthcare.gov. A
new contract with a new company was signed for
$91 million, but this has already grown since the beginning of the year
to $175 million. No telling how much it will be before work is
completed.

The
cost of final price shock is still somewhat unknown. The Affordable
Care Act contains a so-called risk corridor provision. The provision is
meant to smooth out insurers’ losses from new
health plans on the Obamacare insurance exchanges. The risk corridor
procedure typically reduces payments to plans that are doing better than
projected and increases payments to those who are doing worse.

If
this is done in a budget neutral fashion, it doesn’t hurt taxpayers.
However, under Obamacare there may a whole lot of losers and few
winners. There is great concern that the administration
will use the risk corridor provision to give almost every health
insurer increased payments—essentially bailing out the industry. Before
the end of the year, we could see what the bill to taxpayers will be.

There
are some things only the government can do, such as defending our
nation. Running health care is a tremendous task, and even the smartest
people in the Obama administration have failed.
Government isn’t the answer and Obamacare needs to go.

###

US Rep. Joe Pitts is a Republican who represents Pennsylvania's 16th Congressional District in Chester, Berks and Lancaster counties.

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Why Politics Matter

“Politics, the crooked timber of our communal lives, dominates everything because, in the end, everything – high and low and, most especially, high – lives or dies by politics. You can have the most advanced and efflorescent of cultures. Get your politics wrong, however, and everything stands to be swept away. This is not ancient history. This is Germany 1933.” –– Charles Krauthammer

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About Me

Tony A. Phyrillas is a leading conservative columnist, commentator and blogger based in Pennsylvania.
A veteran newspaperman with 33 years experience as a reporter, editor, photographer and columnist, Phyrillas received a first place award in 2010 for best column from the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors and a first place award in 2007 for Best Opinion Column from Suburban Newspapers of America. He was recognized for column writing in 2007 by the Society of Professional Journalists, Keystone Chapter and in 2006 by the SPJ Greater Philadelphia Chapter.
Phyrillas is ranked among the most influential political bloggers in Pennsylvania by BlogNetNews.com.
Odyssey: The World of Greece magazine named Phyrillas one of the leading Greek-American bloggers in the world.
A Penn State University graduate, Phyrillas is the editor/content manager of The Mercury, a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning daily newspaper in Pottstown, Pa.
Phyrillas made frequent appearances on talk radio and as a panelist on the "Journalists Roundtable" program on the Pennsylvania Cable Network.
He co-hosted a weekly radio program on WPAZ 1370 AM for 2 years.